Planned Parenthood Offers Gift Certificates for Exams - and Abortions

While many major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, and Wal-Mart grapple with today's politically correct pressure in deciding whether to advertise using the words "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays," Planned Parenthood, America's leading abortion provider, boldy unveiled their holiday strategy. Planned Parenthood (PP) of Indiana now has a marketing scheme that sees them offering "gift certificates" for the holidays for services performed at any of the state's 35 PP clinics. The certificates, billed as an "unusual yet practical gift this holiday season," are available in $25 increments. The certificates can be used for health exams, and yes, abortions.

Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of PP of Indiana, was quick to try to deflect attention away from the abortion aspect, defending the certificates as a help for people without health insurance who need medical exams. While admitting that the certificates can be redeemed for an abortion, she said, "I can't imagine that could happen."

Indiana Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe was right behind Cockrum, praising the idea, saying the certificates were "a really meaningful gift." The vice president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, Chrystal Struben-Hall, said the certificates are intended for "preventive healthcare," like birth control or basic screenings.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana's move has drawn fire and outrage from pro-life and Christian groups across the board. Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a dedicated pro-lifer, said:

The word inappropriate hardly describes Planned Parenthood's scheme. To give someone a gift card from the nation's largest abortion business is to give death for Christmas. No amount of spin can turn this promotion into anything other than an abomination. Congress gave Planned Parenthood $3 million last year, and now a chapter of this group is defiling the celebration of our Savior's birth. As one of America's taxpayers, I want my money back.

Jim Sedlak, vice-president of American Life League, said, "This is an outrage and every Christian should be appalled. Christmas, perhaps more than any other time of the year, is dedicated to the miracle of life and Divine Love, which is under attack in our relativist society. Chief among the assailants is and has always been the twisted philosophy Planned Parenthood promotes — a philosophy that enshrines selfishness, devalues human life and degrades human sexuality."

The story is being re-reported on hundreds of Internet sites and rehashed on just about every imaginable blog. Blogger Brad Greenberg from the online Jewish Journal posted on "The God Blog," "I'm speechless. This is the most mindblowing marketing maneuver I have ever head of."

While vocalized Christian sentiments are being discouraged these days — even "God Bless You" to someone who sneezes is banned from some offices lest someone be "offended" — PP has no problem marketing their culture of death with the help of major-media outlets.

Most of the major media, which are complicit in promoting more and more politically correct verbiage and the accompanying mentality, reported the story in an almost light-hearted or humorous way. The Washington Times described the certificates as an odd but "quick stocking stuffer this holiday season," and the Los Angeles Times regarded them as "an original holiday gift idea."

By definition, a gift is something given to another to show affection, support, love, etc. What kind of friends would exchange PP gift certificates? Because nothing says I love you, or I care for you more than birth control or abortion, or having your STD checked out? Call them what you will — death certificates, Herod certificates (so you, too, can participate in the killing of innocents!) — they are not gift certificates.

If someone were short of cash or needed medical attention, surely some relative, friend, or charitable agency could be enlisted to help out. To support PP in any way, even using their "health services," is to help keep alive their abortion mills and participate in their destruction of innocent human life.

Planned Parenthood's latest scam is religiously blasphemous, a mockery of the Christian faith, and a new low in the ever increasing exploitation of Christmas. Limiting births and the outright murder of the unborn has now been successfully marketed as "preventive health." If PP thought it would be counterproductive to promote such a twisted and diabolical move, they would never had done it. It's a pretty good indication of just how far down the road America has strayed from its religious roots.

The "holiday" spirit of PP fits right in with America's detachment to things that are sacred, and America's acceptance of the new "holiday" philosophy that would have us divorce ourselves from our God, the Author of life — and from Christ, His Son, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas.